By Blake Tommey “When these kinds of things happen in my life, things that are so clearly filled with more beauty or redemption or reconciliation than my cranky personality and stony heart could ever manufacture on their own, I just…
Congregations fix yesterday’s mistakes, hoping they will solve tomorrow’s challenges
No doubt the tragic death of 150 people involving Germanwings Flight 9525 on March 24 is of such extreme seriousness that no trite applications of what happened should be put forth. At the same time, the actions and lessons of…
Transforming together: What CBFNC’s General Assembly taught me
Recently I attended the Cooperative Baptist Church of North Carolina’s General Assembly. I was honored to receive the Randall and Lou Lolley Scholarship for my theological education at Duke Divinity School. But I couldn’t help but feel more than just…
Community rallies to rescue, nurture elderly immigrant
By Ashleigh Bugg Irene Calderón is 78 years old with a face full of sun-warmed wrinkles and a voice that lilts like music. “Ma-mitaa, cómo esta niñaa” — the words moved up and down when she laughs. The small Peruvian grandmother…
Every refugee is a chance to live the gospel, ministers and missionaries say
By Leah Allen and Jeff Brumley Just under 70,000 refugees from around the world were legally resettled in the United States in 2014, bringing the total to 3 million in every state since 1975. And that, some ministers and domestic…
Understanding the role of your pastor
Leaving Fred Craddock’s funeral, yearning just to be Christian
I was early to Fred Craddock’s funeral. Cherry Log Christian Church is less than two hours from Atlanta, but a trip to Appalachia seems farther so I gave myself way too much time. I had been told to eat at…
The ‘next America’ demands change from churches
The headline for this column is misleading. The “next America” actually is the “now America.” To paraphrase the late cartoon character Pogo, “We have seen the future, and it is here.” And it means most Baptist congregations and their denomination…
Churches on the chamber of commerce list
Economic development. Networking. Community engagement. These phrases may come to mind when someone thinks about chambers of commerce. Varying in size and capacity, they mobilize businesses and organizations in order to promote economic growth. And, yes, they’re known to engage…
10 ways to increase value of and engagement in church participation, part 2
It seems so sad that church has become a place to go rather than an experience to have each day of life. Too often the routines of our church participation fuels disengagement more than deepening our engagement in the faith…
The day that Alice Cooper came to church
On President’s Day weekend, one of those long weekends when “School’s Out,” Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Damon Furnier, better known as Alice Cooper and his wife Sheryl, joined us for worship at First Baptist Pensacola, unannounced. In fact, there was…
Essential practices for young congregations, part 3
Impacting the Vitality and Vibrancy of Churches For Decades to Come The ministry practices congregations establish during their first seven years of life, that must be re-envisioned and renewed every seven years thereafter, are institutionalized by the time congregations are…